


The Everyday We Spoke Of

by stuffy_j



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Frottage, M/M, Post-Canon, chickens geese and a dog oh my!, farm life, really mostly just cavity-inducing fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 10:38:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13098342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffy_j/pseuds/stuffy_j
Summary: Grabbing some supplies from the closet, Gabriel walked back out to where he had laid out some insulation that he was planning on attaching to the inner walls of the coop. The ladies flocked to his feet, pecking the ground around him, expecting him to cast them handfuls of feed. Gabriel laughed and did so. “How do you always know when I’m bringing you a treat?” he said teasingly, smiling at the way they burbled back at him. “Spoiled brats,” Gabriel chuckled.He spent an hour or so attaching a layer of insulation to the coop before the cold drove him back inside the farmhouse, where he eyed the pile of tax paperwork on the desk in the hallway with a sigh. Jack had promised to work on it later this week, but Gabriel knew that Jack would be preoccupied with the vines for a while, and would then be too stressed by upcoming deadlines to do their taxes properly. Wouldn’t that be a way to be discovered. Gabriel could see the headlines now: “DISGRACED FORMER OVERWATCH COMMANDERS LIVING SECRET LIFE, ARRESTED FOR TAX EVASION."





	The Everyday We Spoke Of

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RosemaryFries](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosemaryFries/gifts).



> I'm so glad I got to participate in our little Secret Santa this year, because writing this was so much fun!!! I was assigned an absolutely adorable prompt, and I hope this fits the bill! My prompt was:
> 
> Jack and Gabe finally retire to their own quaint little farm in the midwest. It's some struggle for Gabe to get used to....until an evil evil goose moves into the pond next to the gardens.  
> The chickens are Jack and Gabe's new children.  
> Alternate title: Blackwatch 2.0: Foul Play
> 
> I took a few liberties with it, but I think I'm definitely happy with the end result, so I hope my recipient likes it too!!! Thank you so much again to [foldingcranes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foldingcranes/pseuds/foldingcranes) for hosting and modding this event for us, it was amazing! And also thank you to her as well for betaing this for me at the last minute (because I never do anything on time hehehe)! EVERYONE GO READ KASI'S FICS, THEY'RE AMAZING JUST LIKE HER!!!!
> 
> The title comes from Marie Howe's poem "What the Living Do."
> 
> As always, please let me know what you think! I would love either a kudos or a comment, and thank you for reading!!!

Jack rolled over in bed, squeezing his eyes shut against the sunlight peeking in through the dark curtains hanging over the large window on the opposite wall.

The sheets next to him were cold.

Jack’s eyes shot open, blinking against the sudden bright light as he sat up in bed, blanket pooling around his hips before he threw it off his body and stumbled onto the cold hardwood floor. Where were his pants, he needed a shirt, jacket, his boots—the ground would be cold as winter started to set in, hopefully the dirt was still soft enough that he could track Gabriel’s footprints through the soil, unless he took the car (but he hated that car, called it a “useless piece of junk that’s going to die on us any day now, Jack, it’s so unreliable”), were those Gabriel’s shoes in the corner? Jack was going to kill him when he found him, he should bring the boots along with him so he wouldn’t have to listen to Gabriel complain the entire way back—

“Hey, get the fuck out of here!” Gabriel’s voice floated up from outside, accompanied by the indignant squawking and rapid flapping of several chickens. Jack heard a short scuffle, a couple of bangs, and a few more choice curses from Gabriel before things settled back down in the calm morning light.

Jack dropped the boots with a thud and sat down heavily on the bed again, burying his face in his hands, heart still beating frantically in his chest as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He knew he was being completely ridiculous, of course Gabriel was still there, of course he hadn’t disappeared in the middle of the night.

The back door to the kitchen creaked open downstairs, and Jack winced at the squeal of the hinges over Gabriel lecturing the chickens to stay out of the house. A small smile teased at the corner of his mouth as he took a deep breath, pushing the panic down and away. There was nothing to be worried about, except for maybe whatever had Gabriel cursing like a sailor downstairs. He pushed himself up from the bed with a slight groan, buttoning his shirt properly as he prepared to greet the day with slightly more grace than he had woken up with.

Jack found Gabriel in front of the stove, a basket of fresh eggs on the counter while he cracked a few into a bowl, beating them quickly and pouring the mixture into a hot pan. Leaning against the doorframe, Jack crossed his arms and smiled at the sight. Gabriel was clothed but barefoot, his broad shoulders encased in a flannel he had stolen from Jack a few weeks earlier as the autumn chill had begun creeping across their fields. His hair was getting a little longer than the usual military regulation length he preferred, but Jack loved the way a few gray hairs peeked out around Gabriel’s temples and at the very tips of his beard. 

“You’re up early,” Gabriel said without turning around, pushing the eggs around in the pan before adding a splash of heavy cream and some salt and pepper.

“Couldn’t sleep with all that noise you were making outside,” Jack said, walking over to Gabriel and embracing him from behind. He buried his face in the back of Gabriel’s neck, breathing in deeply as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to squeeze his husband a little tighter than normal. 

Gabriel grumbled in his grip but relaxed back against Jack slightly, still pushing the eggs around the pan. “There was some damn goose chasing the ladies around this morning,” he said. “I don’t know where it came from, but it’s a menace and if it ever comes back again we’re having it for dinner.”

Jack laughed, rubbing his nose against the skin of Gabriel’s neck, breathing in the scent of outside that clung to his husband’s clothes still. “Whatever you say, Gabe,” he said, voice muffled, indulging in one final squeeze before relaxing his grip and looking at the eggs in the pan. “You’re burning them,” he noted.

Cursing, Gabriel pushed the eggs around the pan a little faster, scrambling to lower the heat while Jack was still wrapped around him like an octopus. “You’re clingy today,” he grumbled, and Jack flushed.

“Sorry,” he said, unwinding his arms from around Gabriel’s torso and stepping back. “Just--it was a rough morning, that’s all.”

Gabriel took the pan off the heat and scooped the finished eggs onto two plates, handing one to Jack with a frown. “What do you mean, a rough morning? You only just woke up--” he stopped himself, eyes widening slightly with understanding. “Oh,” Gabriel said quietly. Jack sighed and closed his eyes, tightening his jaw.

“Sorry,” Jack said again, trying for a rueful smile but knowing he was failing miserably, holding the plate of eggs in his hand. They smelled amazing. “It’ll get better. It’s...still new, you know? I’ll get over it. And it’s not every day or anything, but--” he paused and looked at Gabriel, who was looking back at him with a placid expression, waiting for Jack to finish talking. Jack was grateful it wasn’t pity. “Sometimes when I wake up alone, I’m just back in that fucking tomb in Egypt with nothing but stitches in my back and a bottle of whiskey at my side. And you aren’t there, and everything just _hurts_ ,” Jack finished at a whisper, throat tightening against the tears that threatened to fall for a second time that morning. God, he was so fucking _tired_ and the day had only just started.

“Jack,” Gabriel said, and Jack realized he had looked away without meaning to. He looked back into Gabriel’s face, watched as his husband took the plates and carefully placed them on the worn kitchen table next to them. Gabriel wrapped him in a hug, one hand coming up to card softly through Jack’s hair, anchoring Jack against him. Jack let out a carefully controlled breath, feeling his lungs shudder in his chest.

“I’m sorry, Gabe,” he said again, mumbling the words into Gabriel’s shoulder.

“We’re both sorry for a lot of things,” Gabriel said, continuing to stroke Jack’s hair. “We’ve said sorry to each other a thousand times already, and we’re going to keep saying it a thousand times more. Which means we’re both going to stick around each other for a while, or at least that’s what I meant when I married you.” He pulled back slightly, smiling at Jack. “I’m not going anywhere, Jack. Even when you wake up alone. You’ll always know where I am.”

“You’re such a sap,” Jack said, smiling fully now, and Gabriel laughed.

“Don’t you have work to do?” he said, picking up Jack’s plate of eggs and pushing them into his hands. “Now you have to eat cold eggs and the ladies are going to be angry at you. They worked hard to make your breakfast.”

Jack tucked into the fluffy (only slightly cold) scrambled eggs, scarfing it down as disgustingly as possible before handing the empty plate back to Gabriel to handle, who was looking at him with amused horror. “I’ll tell the ladies that I’m sorry and that I appreciate all their efforts,” he said, walking to the door and pulling on the brown leather jacket that hung from the hook there. “And I’ll just go do the work that keeps the ladies eating well.” Jack winked at Gabriel, who rolled his eyes back, before pushing through the door and out into the brisk late autumn air.

Taking a bracing breath, Jack clapped his hands twice before Indy came bounding around the corner, golden fur flying as the dog skidded to a halt in front of Jack. “Hey, boy,” Jack said, scratching the dog’s ears, “let’s take a drive around, huh?” Indy yipped and immediately raced to the shed where the old ATV sat, a half-full wagon of hay hitched behind it. Jack started the machine, wincing as the engine sputtered half-heartedly to life before settling into a comfortable rumble beneath him. Indy jumped up into the wagon, settling himself amongst the hay as Jack drove off to check on the farm.

Convincing Gabriel to move to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia had been only slightly more difficult than Jack had anticipated. Gabriel was a city boy at heart, but Jack knew they both needed to be somewhere quiet and open, where they could see any threats coming at them from miles away. Jack had initially considered trying to move them to the old Morrison family farm back in Indiana, but the thought of being under the endless skies of the Midwest again brought back too many memories of what he had lost. This...this was a compromise for the both of them. It was only a few hours drive to Washington, D.C. if they wanted to go to the city for Gabriel, and the mountains in the distance reminded Jack that the fields did end, that he could escape if he needed. Convincing Gabriel to buy a small vineyard and begin producing wine grapes for local wineries had been much less difficult. They had found a decent-sized farmhouse that oversaw a small vineyard and bought it from the previous owners, who had decided they wanted to move to Texas. The vineyard was in decent condition, and Jack immediately began studying as much on viniculture as he could, learning about soil conditions, harvest times, and grape maturation. This was their first winter together, and Jack was spreading hay across the roots of the vines to prevent soil erosion from winter storms, to better protect the hibernating plants. 

Indy had shown up at their front door one night about a month after Gabriel and Jack had moved in during the middle of a thunderstorm, soaked and shivering and so skinny they could see his ribs. His thick golden fur had been mangy and patchy, and he had yipped and nipped at the two of them in pain as they cleaned him up as best they could. He had no collar and no microchip, according to the vet they had taken him to the next day, and Jack decided to adopt him instead. 

(“I can’t believe you’re naming him after _Indiana Jones_ , who, by the way, was named after a _dog_ ,” Gabriel had hissed while Jack filled out the paperwork at the vet’s office.

“Those movies are classics,” Jack said calmly, signing his name. Thank goodness ‘Jack Morrison’ was a fairly common and unassuming name. “And if you’re not careful, I’ll leave you for Harrison Ford.”

“He’s dead!” Gabriel said, aghast.

“So are you,” Jack said.

Gabriel had to concede the point, and the dog was named Indy.)

Jack parked the ATV by the edge of the vineyard, noting in satisfaction that none of the twisted, curling brown vines he could see were displaying any signs of rot. Picking up a large armful of hay, he began walking down the rows of plants, tossing the straw so that it coated the ground evenly, shoring up the earth against the winter chill. As he walked, he looked for signs of disease among the plants but found none. Indy trotted after him, snuffling in the hay and sneezing every once in a while. Stopping at the end of a row, Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the cold air rush through his lungs before breathing back out. Opening his eyes once more, Jack could see the steam of his breath fade away, and he looked off at the rounded outlines of the mountains in the distance, their slopes a fading reminder of the glory of the colors of fall as the whole region slipped into winter. He stared at them for a few minutes, half-listening to Indy snuffling at his feet, and then walked on.

\---

Gabriel watched through the window as Jack and Indy drove off together on the ATV with a small smile on his face before turning his attention back to the breakfast dishes which Jack had (conveniently) not cleaned, even though it was his turn. Shrugging, Gabriel placed them in the sink for when Jack got back. He cooked. Jack got to clean, even if he tried to avoid it for a few hours.

Washing his hands, Gabriel glanced back out the window towards the chicken coop, where several of his ladies were strutting around the yard, pecking intermittently at the ground. He could see the signs of them molting as they began growing their winter coats, old feathers laying curled on the ground or wisping gently through the air. 

The chickens had been Jack’s idea. Moving to the farm had been a difficult transition, especially for Gabriel. He had felt useless, and slow, like nothing he did was right. It was a lot to deal with, especially with him and Jack still on relatively shaky ground with one another. He didn’t have the same passion for tending the vines that Jack did, was really only interested in the wine they would get from the wineries they dealt with. Gabriel was overjoyed to be back with Jack, but he just couldn’t get invested in the slow pace of life they now lived. He had spent his entire life fighting; now the only enemies he faced were vine rot, and himself.

And then Jack had come back from running errands one day with a car full of chickens, the “ladies” as Gabriel called them. “I want fresh eggs every morning,” Jack had said, pushing one of the chickens into Gabriel’s arms before setting up a quick, temporary enclosure. “Come help me build their coop,” he’d said, and Gabriel had been helpless but to obey. 

Now they were his ladies, and Gabriel had read nearly every book about raising chickens he could get his hands on. He had already started to winterize their coop and run, making sure that any drafts were blocked but that the coop still had excellent ventilation, and he was in a week-long fight with himself over whether or not he should get a flat panel radiant heater to install in the coop over winter. Gabriel was paranoid about a fire breaking out in the coop and losing all of the ladies because of one mistake. 

Grabbing some supplies from the closet, Gabriel walked back out to where he had laid out some insulation that he was planning on attaching to the inner walls of the coop. The ladies flocked to his feet, pecking the ground around him, expecting him to cast them handfuls of feed. Gabriel laughed and did so. “How do you always know when I’m bringing you a treat?” he said teasingly, smiling at the way they burbled back at him. “Spoiled brats,” Gabriel chuckled.

He spent an hour or so attaching a layer of insulation to the coop before the cold drove him back inside the farmhouse, where he eyed the pile of tax paperwork on the desk in the hallway with a sigh. Jack had promised to work on it later this week, but Gabriel knew that Jack would be preoccupied with the vines for a while, and would then be too stressed by upcoming deadlines to do their taxes properly. Wouldn’t that be a way to be discovered. Gabriel could see the headlines now: “DISGRACED FORMER OVERWATCH COMMANDERS LIVING SECRET LIFE, ARRESTED FOR TAX EVASION.” 

Sighing, Gabriel fished his reading glasses from where he had left them (on the side table next to the couch, on top of a book he had been reading the night before while he and Jack had shared a bottle of wine in front of the fire). Slipping them on his face, Gabriel sat down at the kitchen table to begin going over the forms and making sure everything was filled out properly before they had to send it in to the IRS. 

\---

Jack carefully backed the ATV into the shed, smiling as Indy barked at some birds flying overhead. The field was completely covered in hay now; he would only have to refresh it once or twice more during the winter, and only if a heavy storm hit. Whistling to Indy, he turned the motor off and walked back towards the house, thinking about building a fire to keep going for the rest of the day. Indy ran through the open door ahead of him, immediately heading to his bed in the corner of the kitchen and curling up, a contented whuff leaving his snout. Jack laughed lightly, taking off his leather jacket and hanging it up once more next to the door before turning and spotting Gabriel sitting at the kitchen table--

\--wearing his glasses.

Jack froze.

“Hey, sunshine,” Gabriel said absently, tapping a pen against his lips while he stared intently at some documents in front of him without looking at Jack. “Everything look okay out there?”

“Y-yeah,” Jack said, having to swallow against the sudden lump in his throat. “What are you doing?”

Gabriel hummed noncommittally, still not looking up. “Just going over some tax information,” he said, “making sure we’re all up to date on everything before March. Wouldn’t want to lose this place just because neither of us have done our own taxes in, oh, thirty years or so.” He finally glanced up at Jack, a sharp, quick smile on his face, his eyes glittering behind the glasses. “That’d be pretty fucking embarrassing, huh?”

“Fuck,” Jack said, and crossed the room in three large strides, pulling Gabriel’s chair out from the table and promptly sitting down on his lap. “Fuck,” he said again, staring at Gabriel up close, running a hand through his greying hair and pulling back slightly so that Gabriel had to look up at him. “Do you know how good you look right now?” Jack asked, voice rough.

Gabriel smirked up at him, arms immediately wrapping around Jack’s waist to keep him in place on his lap. The wooden chair creaked beneath them as Gabriel shifted his weight slightly, settling Jack a little more comfortably against him. “And how good is that?” he asked, voice dropping slightly. 

Jack circled his hips against Gabriel’s, already feeling himself start to harden. “We need to get you a tweed jacket, I can fulfill all my professor fantasies with you in those glasses,” he said, biting back a moan as Gabriel thrust up as best he could against him.

“Didn’t realize you had a glasses kink, Jackie,” Gabriel laughed, one hand migrating down to grip Jack’s ass through his jeans, squeezing just enough to make Jack gasp. He leaned up to kiss him, their mouths open and wet against each other as they moved together in the chair. “Wanna move this to the bed?” Gabriel said, pulling back and licking his lips, a slight pant in his voice.

Jack shook his head, already reaching down to undo the zipper of Gabriel’s jeans, standing up just enough that he could push them partway down Gabriel’s thighs before sitting back down and undoing his own pants. “No,” he said, “I’m pretty happy right here. Don’t want to move.” Reaching into Gabriel’s pants, he drew out his hardening cock, stroking it with his dry hand a couple of times, making Gabriel moan at the friction before he licked his palm, wetting the skin and making the glide easier. “Fuck, Gabe, getting so hard for me,” he panted, kissing Gabriel again before he could respond.

Gabriel kept squeezing Jack’s ass as best he could, his other hand threading into Jack’s hair and getting a good grip, allowing him to direct the kiss from underneath Jack. The hand on Gabriel’s cock was so good, tight around the head just the way Gabriel liked it, and Jack’s cock was thick and straining in his underwear, a wet spot forming at the tip where it pressed against the fabric. Jack’s tongue was devious, coaxing Gabriel’s tongue into his own mouth, the two of them nipping lightly at each other’s lips as they kissed and kissed.

Finally Gabriel broke away, leaning his head against Jack’s collarbones and pressing light, panting kisses to the scarred, soft skin peeking through the collar of Jack’s shirt there. God, Jack was beautiful, a map of life’s pain drawn across his body in pink and silver scars, and Gabriel knew them all, just as Jack knew all of Gabriel’s.

He couldn’t believe how amazingly lucky he had gotten.

Gabriel panted against Jack’s chest, finally drawing his hand from Jack’s head around to stop his movements for just a moment. Kissing Jack again, softly this time, Gabriel reached into Jack’s own pants and took out his cock, smearing the precum at the tip with his thumb and pulling him even closer with his grip on his ass. “Come on,” he said lowly, “Like this,” and he pressed their cocks together, gripping them tightly as he shifted and thrust up, once, then again, finding a rhythm that Jack quickly fell into, the two of them thrusting as best they could in the chair, which creaked and squeaked beneath them as they rocked on the floor.

“Fuck, Gabe!” Jack cried out, hands on Gabriel’s shoulders and fisted in his shirt for purchase, toes digging into the floor as he tried to gain more leverage. “Ah, shit--come on,” he panted, head thrown back as Gabriel sped up his fist, tightening his grip as well.

“So good for me, fuck, love you like this,” Gabriel said, nosing at Jack’s neck and leaving small nips and kisses along the length of skin. He thrust up harder, grinning at the way Jack cried out at the change, then kept up the pace. “Ah--Jack, shit, gonna come--!” Gabriel moaned, thrusting a few more times before spilling over his fist and Jack’s cock, a few ropes of come landing on both Jack’s and his shirt. He kept moving his fist, twisting it at the head, like he knew Jack liked it.

Jack shuddered over him, hips twisting more and more frantically as he chased his orgasm. He could feel it building at the base of his spine, and he kissed Gabriel again, moaning into his mouth. Gabriel thrust up once, twice more, sending Jack over the edge with a sharp cry, their hips crashing against each other as Jack followed in Gabriel’s footsteps and came over his fist, covering both of their cocks in more come.

Just then, the chair beneath them gave a final, ominous crack, and shattered, sending Gabriel and Jack to the floor.

A stunned moment of silence, and then Jack started chuckling, still on Gabriel’s lap, rocking forward slightly so he could laugh and kiss Gabriel’s face--his forehead, eyelids, cheeks, nose, mouth. Jack couldn’t stop it, laughter shaking his shoulders and Gabriel began laughing too, loud and bright as they sat wrapped up in each other, laughing until they couldn’t anymore, until smiles stretched their mouths wide and made kisses difficult.

Their laughter died down, foreheads pressed together as they panted into each other’s mouths, exchanging light, open-mouthed kisses among the wooden remains of the chair. 

“I can’t believe we did that,” Jack said, a chuckle rising from his chest.

“You started it!” Gabriel said, nuzzling against Jack’s cheek, carding a hand through Jack’s sweat soaked hair. 

“And you finished it,” Jack said. Gabriel pulled back and made a face at the smirk Jack was sporting.

“You’re horrible,” he said.

“Yup. And proud.”

Just then, the ladies began squawking loudly outside, and they could hear the rapid susurration of feathers ruffling as the chickens apparently ran around their fenced-in area. “Let me go see what’s going on,” Gabriel said, lightly brushing Jack off his lap and pushing himself to his feet with a groan. He rushed outside, pants unfastened and held up only by one hand, and then all Jack could hear was a loud “Hey!” followed by more indignant squawking from the ladies, the heavy thud of running, and what sounded like--was that honking?

“Get the fuck--hey! Asshole!” Gabriel shouted from outside the house. “Stop harassing my ladies, get out of--ow!” Jack winced as it sounded like Gabriel collided with something heavy and wooden, the sound of flapping feathers raised in cacophonous harmony with the screeching of the chickens and the angry honking of what Jack guessed was the goose from this morning. 

Jack slowly got up off of the floor, surveying the damage. Well, that was one chair totally destroyed, but they still had three good ones, and it’s not like they ever had many guests over anyway. They could live with only three kitchen chairs. Jack winced as more shouts and curses came from outside.

_Shouldn’t you go out there and help your husband?_ a small voice asked in the back of his mind. Jack ignored it. Gabriel could handle himself. But that didn’t mean Jack couldn’t...observe what was happening. If he did that, then he’d be able to easily jump in and help if it looked like Gabriel actually needed it.

Pushing open the door, Jack nearly collapsed from laughing at the sight that greeted him. Gabriel was chasing a large, speckled goose around the chicken run, his pants hanging precariously off his hips and threatening to trip him while the chickens ran around in confusion, getting underfoot as much as possible. The goose was hissing and spitting angrily, trying to tug on the chickens’ tail feathers, flapping around the run like an animal possessed and evading nearly all of Gabriel’s swipes. Gabriel finally grabbed a rake that stood against the fencing and used it to jab the goose out of the run until it flapped away, screeching vengeance into the sky. The chickens finally stopped running around like they were about to have their heads cut off, their bodies becoming much less puffy as they deflated their feathers.

Gabriel came storming back towards the house, muttering angrily under his breath. Jack could only make out _goose_ and _menace_ as Gabriel stomped past him, looking even more ruffled than the chickens. He marched over to the table, grabbing a large notepad that they had mostly been using to create grocery shopping lists. 

“This is war,” Gabriel said to Jack, already hunching over the paper to begin formulating his strategy to take down the enemy. “That goddamn goose is going to keep coming back unless I do something about it, and the ladies can’t be stressed before winter hits unless we both want egg production to stop.” 

Jack shrugged, trying to will down his erection ( _again?_ he asked himself) as he watched Gabriel don his reading glasses once again. “Whatever you say, sweetheart,” Jack said, brushing a kiss to the top of Gabriel’s head and setting about cleaning the broken chair pieces up.

\---

The goose became Gabriel’s public enemy number one, appearing at random times throughout the day to wreak havoc amongst the chickens (and also Gabriel, if he was outside as well). The goose’s favorite trick was to sneak up soundlessly behind Gabriel while he was winterizing the coop and bite his ass, which inevitably would send Gabriel into a cursing fit while he chased the goose around the yard. 

“You’re no help,” Gabriel mumbled one evening while Jack got an ice pack for his forehead. Gabriel had run into a doorway while chasing the goose away this time.

“What do you want me to do?” Jack asked calmly, fingers gentling as he carefully examined Gabriel’s head for any other bumps and bruises after Gabriel hissed and recoiled beneath him. “Have you tried following the goose back to where it’s coming from? Maybe if you do that you can try to figure out how to stop it somehow, maybe move its nest further away or something.”

Gabriel sighed, submitting to Jack’s poking and prodding, pressing the ice pack to his head instead. “I’ve tried to follow it a couple of times,” he admitted. “No luck so far though.”

“Well, keep at it,” Jack said, leaning down to give him a kiss. “One of these days it’ll work.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel sighed.

_One of these days_ turned out to be only two days later when Gabriel went out for a morning walk after feeding the ladies, Indy following curiously behind him and sniffing every rock and broken tree branch they came across. It was truly a cold morning, not quite the depth of winter but nearly there. Gabriel had left Jack tucked away in their bed, snoring amongst the quilts while he fed the ladies and collected eggs for breakfast. When Jack hadn’t appeared by the time he was done outside, Gabriel decided that a short walk to explore more of the property was in order. 

He knew there was a small pond about a ten minute walk from the farmhouse, and he set off for it, listening to the way his feet sounded over the frozen ground, cracking through the layer of frost that coated everything. Gabriel tucked his hands deeper into his coat pockets, making sure that Indy didn’t wander too far off as they walked over the hardened fields. Trudging up over a midsized hill, Gabriel paused at the top, looking back over the farmland behind him. The vineyard was off in the distance, a dark brown smudge against the steel gray sky. In front of him, the still water of the pond reflected the clouds across its surface. Several bare trees dotted the shoreline. It was beautiful in a desolate, quiet kind of way, Gabriel thought.

And then he heard the honking.

Horrified, Gabriel looked around, trying to figure out how the goddamn goose had found him all the way out here, away from the coop. At least he knew the ladies were safe at the moment, even if he wasn’t.

But the honking wasn’t getting any closer. Instead, Gabriel finally spotted the goose swooping down from out of the sky, landing on the other side of the pond and waddling over to...was that a nest? With another goose in it?

Understanding dawned on Gabriel, and he immediately turned around to head back to Jack.

\---

“Jack, wake up,” a voice hissed by Jack’s ear. He groaned and rolled over in bed, burrowing himself deeper in the warm sheets and attempting to block out the noise.

It didn’t work. A hand grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. “Jack!” the voice said again, louder this time. “Wake up! I have something important to tell you!”

“What?” Jack asked, voice hoarse from sleep as he rolled over to glare at whoever dared to wake him up. Gabriel stared down at him, eyes bright and too-awake. Jack groaned and tried to roll back over again. “Whatever it is, it can wait,” he said, muffled by the pillow.

“No, Jack!” Gabriel said, pulling Jack around again and grinning at him when Jack opened his eyes again. “I’ve figured out the goose problem!”

“Good for you,” Jack said. “I’m going back to sleep.”

Two hands grabbed his shoulders and began hauling him upright and out of the bed, and Jack cursed the SEP for giving them all the strength to carry one another. “Oh, no you’re not,” Gabriel said. “You’re gonna help me.”

Which is how Jack found himself constructing a hutch on a winter’s morning, on the opposite side of the house from the chicken coop. “So, we’re expanding our poultry collection, huh?” he asked, grinning at Gabriel from over a steaming thermos of coffee.

“This is an act of pure self-defense, Morrison,” Gabriel said, hammering some boards together. “And it will hopefully keep the ladies a little happier, if they’re not being harassed at all hours of the day.”

Jack shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said. “But you’re taking care of our newest additions.” He smiled at the dirty look Gabriel shot him from over the newly-completed goose hutch. “Come on, let’s get some feed to entice these two into their new home.”

Gabriel sighed and then laughed, setting his hammer down and coming around the hutch to kiss Jack squarely on the lips. When they broke apart, he pressed another, lighter kiss to Jack’s sun-freckled cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“Love you, Gabe.”

“Love you too, Jackie.”

\---

Spring was a little slow to come to the foothills of the mountains, a few late frosts keeping things frozen and making Jack worry about the state of the vines in their field. Most of them had survived the winter, and Jack only had to replenish the hay on the ground twice after some moderate snow storms had swept through. 

The weather predicted that the cold would break in the next week, so Jack decided to build one final fire for the season, the flames casting red-orange flickers across the walls of the house. The remains of the the dinner dishes sat soaking in the sink, and Gabriel and Jack sat in front of the fireplace, stretched out on the couch as the beginnings of rain began drumming on the roof.

Margarita the chicken fluffed out her feathers, stirring slightly from her spot on Gabriel’s lap. A few of the other ladies were picking curiously across the old wooden floor, the rest of the flock tucked away warm and safe in the coop. The goose, which Jack had taken to calling Gabrielito (“He has your same overprotective instincts!” Jack had laughed) was patrolling the edge of the kitchen, casting a watchful eye across the whole scene, particularly where Jack was holding a small, fuzzy gray gosling in his own lap, softly stroking its downy head while it slept. Indy was drowsing on his own bed, tail swishing lazily across the floor in a motion that hypnotized several of the chickens. Gabriel watched them and laughed.

Jack smiled over at Gabriel, carefully adjusting his hold on the gosling in his hands. “I know it’s not what either of us were expecting,” he said quietly, “but I have to say: this is more than I ever imagined.”

Gabriel stretched a hand out across the couch cushions, and Jack caught it with his own.

“Me too, sunshine,” Gabriel said. “And it’s everything I didn’t know I needed.”


End file.
